For those of you who have been with us since the beginning 5+ years ago, you know that it has been (and hopefully will be) quite a long journey.  Yesterday was a very good day on that winding road.

Yesterday morning, I arrived at the hospital to find Jen walking around with her nurse and IV poll.  Yes, it was a very slow walk, but just 1 day after major surgery, that's amazing!  She is still itchy (I think from the anesthesia), in some pain (getting pain meds, but can't take too much since that would mask any issues we need to be aware of), and not able to eat or drink anything until her digestive system starts to wake up (hopefully in the next few days).  But overall it was a very good day!

Please keep the good thoughts coming via comments on this blog, drawings from your kids, etc.  Jen reads them all, and they give her a lot of strength.  Voice mails and emails are good too, but please be specific that you're not expecting her to reply (she needs to focus on rest and recovery).

Some of you asked for a little more info about the surgery.  They removed the main tumor and one other small nodule in the same general area as well.  To do so, they removed about 12 inches of both her small intestine and large intestine, and then connected both back up.  As you could tell from the pictures Jen posted of her belly before surgery, the tumor was very large.  It was sort of in the shape of the top of a mushroom so one of the doctors said 2 footballs side-by-side is more accurate than the soccer ball I mentioned below.  Said it probably weighed 5 to 10 pounds (you can imagine the discomfort Jen was feeling).  He actually called it "ginormous" -- I didn't realize that was a medical term!

They sent the tissue off to the lab for analysis, which might give us some data to help determine where we go from here.  But for now, we're psyched the surgery went well, and we're focused on getting a little stronger each day.  Thanks for all your support!  - DL